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HOUSTON (AP) — Rockets forward Amen Thompson threw Heat guard Tyler Herro to the floor to trigger an altercation that resulted in six ejections in the closing minute of Miami's 104-100 victory over Houston on Sunday. Thompson and Herro became entangled with Miami about to inbound the ball leading 99-94 with 35 seconds left. Thompson grabbed Herro by the jersey and tossed him, with referee Marc Davis describing it as Thompson “body slams Herro .” “I didn’t see it live, but I re-watched it,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “They were in each other’s face, bumping chests a little bit, and one guy’s stronger than the other.” Herro, Thompson, and Udoka were ejected, as were Heat guard Terry Rozier, Rockets guard Jalen Green, and Rockets assistant coach Ben Sullivan. Davis said Green and Rozier escalated the altercation, while Sullivan was assessed a technical foul and ejected for unsportsmanlike comments as the referee was trying to redirect the Rockets' Alperen Sengun. The altercation occurred after Miami had come from 12 points down in the second half to regain the lead with the help of Houston missing 11 straight shots in the fourth quarter. Herro keyed the comeback, leading all scorers with 27 points and adding nine assists and six rebounds. He believed that's what frustrated Thompson. “Guess that’s what’s happens when someone’s scoring, throwing dimes, doing the whole thing,” Herro said. “I’d get mad, too.” Herro said he had never spoken to Thompson, who did not talk to reporters after Sunday’s game, so there was no previous bad blood between the two. “Just two competitors going at it, playing basketball,” Herro said. “It was a regular game that we were playing throughout.” Houston's Fred VanVleet had been ejected just before the fight, with Davis saying VanVleet made contact with him after being called for a 5-second violation. The win for Miami came 24 hours after losing 120-110 in Atlanta. The Heat were missing second-leading scorer Jimmy Butler for a fifth straight game, so Herro was proud of his team played against one of NBA’s best teams this season. “They’re top two, three in the West,” Herro said. “Very good defense. Got a bunch of young, athletic guys that can really play, so that’s a good win for us. That’s a stepping stone. We go 2-1 on the road. Put ourselves in a position to win yesterday, and I like how it’s going. We just got to continue to keep getting better.”UConn 47, Umass 42

Boeing faces crisis after fatal crash in South Korea amid ongoing safety concern

NEUHAUSEN, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 30, 2024-- Sensormatic Solutions , the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), today shared its first look into in-store shopper traffic for the 2024 holiday season. The brand’s ShopperTrak Analytics insights indicate that U.S. shopper visits were down 3.9% from Nov. 24 through Nov. 29, in line with the in-store traffic trends seen year-to-date (down 3.0% year-over-year). Preliminary analysis showed shopper traffic on Black Friday was down 8.2% compared to 2023. Full Black Friday weekend results will be published on Dec. 3. On Black Friday, Sensormatic Solutions data showed that early afternoon is still the most popular time for in-store browsing. As in 2023, shopper traffic peaked between 2 and 3 p.m. “Retailers are changing their approach to meet shopper expectations, extending their deals and promotions beyond Black Friday itself to support a more convenient shopping experience. This led to a softer day-of turnout than expected as shoppers were able to spread out their purchases and spend time with their families,” said Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions. “The industry’s evolution over the past few years is a testament to the hard work that retail leaders have done to meet consumers where and when they want to shop. They’ve embraced technology, improved their operations, and delivered exceptional experiences which has allowed them to better serve in-store shoppers throughout the entire holiday season.” What’s to Come Though Black Friday is predicted to, again, be the busiest day for retailers in the U.S. this winter, the holiday shopping season has only just begun in earnest. This year, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is nearly a week shorter than it was last year. As such, retailers can expect a condensed holiday rush and a strong showing for brick-and-mortar throughout December. “There is a lot of the holiday season left. Today, Saturday, November 30 th stands as the sixth predicted busiest shopping day of the season,” said Gustafson. “Following this weekend, eight of our top ten predicted shopping days remain. To support a shortened period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, retailers will need to make sure they’ve factored the potential for higher-than-average peak periods into their labor, logistics, and merchandising plans.” To learn more about how Sensormatic Solutions can help retailers make the most of the holiday season, visit www.sensormatic.com . For more Sensormatic Solutions holiday insights, use #SensormaticHolidays to follow along on LinkedIn and X . About Johnson Controls At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn, and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy, and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet. Building on a proud history of nearly 140 years of innovation, we deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, our comprehensive digital offering. Today, with a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world`s largest portfolio of building technology and software as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry. Visit www.johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @Johnson Controls on social platforms. About Sensormatic Solutions Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, powers safe, secure, and seamless retail experiences. For more than 50 years, the brand has been at the forefront of the industry’s fast-moving technology adoption, redefining retail operations on a global scale and turning insights into actions. Sensormatic Solutions delivers an interconnected ecosystem of loss prevention, inventory intelligence, and traffic insight solutions, along with our services and partners to enable retailers worldwide to innovate and elevate with precision, connecting data-driven outcomes that shape retail’s future. Please visit Sensormatic Solutions or follow us on LinkedIn , X , and our YouTube channel . View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241130516668/en/ CONTACT: Madison Southall Sensormatic Solutions by Johnson Controls Work: +1-215-869-6452 madison.southall@jci.comGrace Torrance Matter on behalf of Sensormatic Solutions Work: +1-978-518-4504 jciretail@matternow.com KEYWORD: SWITZERLAND EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: DATA ANALYTICS DISCOUNT/VARIETY RETAIL PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT STORES SOURCE: Sensormatic Solutions Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/30/2024 01:28 PM/DISC: 11/30/2024 01:27 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241130516668/enOn November 20, 1974, John Stonehouse was on a business trip in the United States when he vanished after going for an afternoon dip in the Atlantic Ocean. The British backbencher turned businessman had travelled from the United Kingdom to Miami with long-time friend and barrister, James Overton Charlton, to meet with American bankers and discuss a business opportunity. But things took a turn when Stonehouse failed to show up to dinner one evening, an unusual occurrence that prompted his colleague to become concerned and ask staff to check his hotel suite. A search of the room didn't uncover anything out of the ordinary, with Stonehouse's belongings carelessly strewn about like a man who had stepped out and planned to return momentarily. His watch lay on the bedside table along with other important documents, including his passport and $US800 in cash and traveller's cheques. These were not items one would typically leave behind if they weren't planning on coming back. But as the hours ticked by, John Stonehouse was nowhere to be found. Witnesses claimed they had spotted him that afternoon on Miami Beach, dressed in board shorts and walking out to sea. His neatly folded trousers and patterned shirt were later found abandoned on the counter of a small beach hut, indicating the promising British MP had gone for a swim and likely drowned in the Atlantic. Presumed dead without a body, newspapers began reporting the circumstances of his fatal misadventure in Florida. But the Labor politician wasn't dead. The deserted clothes were part of a clever ruse to convince people he had perished, while the politician boarded a plane to Australia under a different name. Because back in England, Stonehouse's life was falling apart. His businesses were floundering, a love triangle was threatening to destroy his marriage and his political career was in shambles after he was accused of being a communist spy. With his house of cards just days away from collapsing around him, Stonehouse found himself inexplicably drawn to the other side of the world and the promise of starting anew with a clean state. And he might have gotten away with it, had a twist of fate not brought authorities to his Melbourne hideaway a month later. Police were searching for another missing fugitive, Lord Lucan — who was accused of killing his nanny and attempting to murder his wife — when suspicion fell on a man with a distinctly British accent withdrawing large sums of money at different banks. Instead of finding the titled peer, officers discovered John Stonehouse living in a nondescript home and using the alias JD Norman. The British MP's disappearance and miraculous discovery exposed a complex web of deceit and followed years of rumours about his possible links to the Mafia, a Czechoslovakian spy ring and the United States Central Intelligence Agency. "It is like an Agatha Christie novel — a very mysterious case," Robert Mellish, who was the Labor Party chief whip in the House of Commons, said at the time. John was arrested on fraud charges and his subsequent trial gripped Britain, the nation transfixed by a high-profile MP caught trying to fake his own death. But 50 years after his discovery on Christmas Eve, many conflicting narratives about his time in Australia have emerged. In one, John was a man on the verge of ruin, who had found an escape in pretending to be someone else, only to fall victim to a disturbing mental disorder. In the other, he is an ambitious con man who abandoned his family and orchestrated his fake death to escape the consequences of his actions and be with his mistress. To this day, many facets of his story are disputed by authors, journalists and members of his own family. All anyone can seem to agree on is that the only person who really knew John Stonehouse was himself. The British MP accused of spying for a communist state A second son from Southhampton, a port city south-west of London, John Thomson Stonehouse once dreamed of becoming a prime minister of Britain. The child of left-leaning, working-class parents, he joined the Labour Party at 16 years old and became a trainee pilot for the Royal Armed Forces (RAF) before completing a post-national-service course at the London School of Economics. Confident, charming and ambitious, friends and acquaintances nicknamed him "Lord John" for his lofty political goals. He met his match in Barbara Joan Smith at a dance in 1947. She was a beautiful, educated girl of 15 with similar political leanings and ambitions. "You couldn't help but admire the way Barbara moved and lived," a friend once recalled . The pair married a year later and travelled to socialist youth camps all across Europe, sharing their idealistic dreams and making influential connections, before moving to Uganda in 1952 to manage the African co-operative society. Stonehouse returned to England with his wife two years later, brimming with progressive zeal but penniless and in desperate need of work. He took up odd jobs until he was elected, aged 32, as the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Wednesbury and Walsall North in a 1957 by-election. The British politician quickly rose to prominence criticising the country's protectorates in Kenya as discriminatory and unjust, before reportedly catching the eye of Czechoslovakian agents. It would mark the start of an alleged arrangement that would embroil the British MP in scandal and innuendo, though the exact nature of his involvement with Czechoslovakia remains in dispute. According to Philip Augar and Keely Winstone, who wrote Agent Twister: John Stonehouse and the Scandal that Gripped the Nation, John was lured in with a splashy state visit and elaborate parties at the Czech embassy, before he was allegedly pressed for information. "They psychologically groomed him over a period of time ...," Julian Hayes — John's great nephew and author of Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster and Spy — told the Guardian . "A Czech agent befriended him and worked on him over lunches and dinners. If they'd said, 'John, we'd like you to spy for us', he'd have said no. But a slow insidious step-by-step persuasion to cooperate worked." The British MP had ostensibly agreed to meet with Vlad Koudelka, a captain in communist Czechoslovakia's secret police force, the Státní bezpecnost (StB), with the aim of twinning his constituency of Wednesbury with the Czech town of Kladno. The arrangement was believed to be mutually beneficial to the two urban areas but Czech intelligence archives obtained by Mr Hayes reveal the nature of this relationship soon evolved into a spying operation. John was allegedly paid 5,000 pounds in all ($AUD102,000 in today's money) for information about government plans and technological subjects, including aircraft . In file 43075, reportedly buried in the StB archive, several documents in John's handwriting reveal his links to the Czechs, including a five-page report on members of the African National Congress. "He was not a spy in the sense of James Bond or the novels of John Le Carré. But he provided the Czechs with information and got a lot of money from them. He knew what he was doing," Mr Hayes said. For many years, no-one around John knew about his involvement with the Czechs. "He was a complete loner," one parliamentary colleague told Time. "I don't think he had a single close friend in the House." Within the Labour Party, he was regarded as a rising star, having quickly climbed the ranks to become minister of state for technology. In 1968, Stonehouse was promoted to postmaster general, where he introduced Britain's first and second class mail system, and then he was appointed to another privileged position, the Privy Council — a body of advisers to the Queen. But his dramatic ascent would come to a halt in 1969, when Czech defector Josef Frolik claimed that John had been recruited as an informer. Then-British prime minister Harold Wilson denied the rumours and the Czech exile's accusations were investigated by an inquiry, which found they could not be substantiated. (Separately, Mr Wilson also rejected claims Stonehouse was a CIA agent, a bizarre theory that was also denied by US sources to the New York Times .) John's daughter, Julia Stonehouse, has also denied her father worked for Czechoslovakia and has claimed the "spy narrative"' rumours were spread by right-wing elements of MI5 . "My website is called 'So where's the evidence?' precisely because nobody has been able to produce evidence [my father was a spy]," she said. Even so, the Czech defector's allegations were damaging to John Stonehouse and when Labour lost the 1970 election, he was booted out of the shadow cabinet. It would come to light decades later that former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher had agreed to a cover-up of information that confirmed he had been a spy. He is believed to be the only British politician to have acted as a foreign agent while a minister. With his political ambitions shattered, John became more preoccupied with his business dealings, starting his own financial institution called London Capital Group (LCG). In 1972, he also took up a role as chairman of the British Bangladesh Trust, which involved setting up banking services and investment opportunities in Bangladesh. But the venture went south when the market collapsed, threatening to take the money John had funnelled through along with it. At the same time an ongoing affair with his secretary, Sheila Buckley, who was recently divorced and 21 years his junior, was threatening to blow up his marriage. An elaborate fake death in Miami and escape to Australia Before John Stonehouse made his fateful trip to Florida, his wife had set up a series of large life-insurance policies for him and the children. The policies were reported to be worth upwards of $US200,000. Barbara Stonehouse later claimed the timing was pure coincidence, and was the result of a string of attempts on John Stonehouse's life. The previous summer the British MP's car was blown up by a bomb and another was found in an adjoining house in London. The real danger to Stonehouse's life, however, was himself. After getting off the plane in Miami, Stonehouse checked into a hotel and talked with officers of a local bank before telling his business partner he was going to take a dip in the ocean. Witnesses claimed they saw him walk over to a beach hut, put down his clothes and strut off to the sea in his bathing trunks. Then he disappeared without a trace. Stonehouse had indeed gone for a swim that day, but had chosen to exit the water further down the beach at a neighbouring hotel, where he had left a change of clothes, money and a passport with his new identity. Then he took a taxi to Miami Airport, where he retrieved a large suitcase and a leather briefcase before boarding a plane with a British passport in the name of Joseph Markham. He flew first to Hawaii, embarking on a roundabout trip that took him to Singapore and Denmark, before he finally arrived in Australia through Perth on December 10. John had used the forged passports of Markham and another dead constituent, Donald Mildoon, to travel around. He may have finally been free but in Miami, Stonehouse's disappearance, which had initially been ruled an accidental drowning, was under a cloud. When his body failed to wash up after 78 hours, police became suspicious. Normally, those who drowned at sea were discovered within a couple of days but there was no trace of Stonehouse anywhere. They began to suspect foul play and a new working theory emerged that John Stonehouse was likely still alive, possibly being held prisoner by gangs. The theory was given more prominence when Miami police found traces of blood and hair inside a "concrete overcoat", a signature method of Mafia burials . His wife, however, was convinced he had drowned at sea. "I've heard some extraordinary rumours and they're all so much out of character with my husband's personality that they're just not worth answering or worth thinking about," she said. "I'm convinced in my mind that it was a drowning accident. All the evidence that we've had points to the fact that he was drowned." While Barbara mourned her husband of 20 years, John was busy building a new life in Australia, depositing cheques and arranging for his mistress to come live with him. It was his forays to town that first drew suspicion. A watchful employee on his lunch break noticed John Stonehouse going in and out of different banks with large amounts of cash and alerted his manager. The police were contacted and the missing man was picked up by officers on a train to St Kilda on Christmas Eve. Stonehouse was accused "of being an illegal immigrant with a false passport" and interviewed by police, where he admitted that he had entered Australia with a stolen identity. A phone call to his wife, which was secretly recorded without his knowledge, would confirm his elaborate lie. "Hello darling. Well, they picked up the false identity here. You would realise from all this that I have been deceiving you. I'm sorry about that, but in a sense I'm glad it's all over," he told her. Shortly after his arrest, Stonehouse said in a message to the British prime minister that he had fled because of "incredible pressures" in business and "various attempts at blackmail." "I suppose this can be summed up as a brainstorm or a mental breakdown," John said. "I can only apologise to you and all the others who have been troubled by this business." He would later argue at trial that his decision to runaway was brought on by an acute mental illness, and that his new personality was convinced he would be better off leaving his old one behind. At first, Barbara Stonehouse believed him, describing his disappearance as a strange episode likely prompted by a disorder. "It is not John Stonehouse as he is basically," she said at the time . But officers believed John Stonehouse had been planning his escape for some time. The police in Australia said his passport, bearing the name JD Norman, was issued in London on August 2, 1974, months before he disappeared from a Miami beach. He had also spent some time rehearsing his new identity, assuming the characteristics of a "private and honest individual", before making his escape, according to a psychiatric report conducted shortly after his arrest . In fact, Stonehouse may have been inspired by Freddie Forsyth's 1972 novel, The Day of the Jackal, which follows the story of an assassin who steals the identity of a dead child. The Jackal searches gravestones in a cemetery looking for a birthdate similar to his own so that he can obtain a birth certificate and use it to assume their identity to apply for a passport. But unlike the Jackal, John Stonehouse was no master of disguise. The fraud trial that transfixed a nation By 1974, most of Stonehouse's companies were in varying shades of trouble and the British MP was veering towards a financial cliff. A wine company that he owned called Connoisseurs of Claret, Ltd had lost more than $US100,000 — equivalent to more than $A1 million today — in a single year. Another of his businesses, a trading company Global Imex, was forced to close its office in Bangladesh and the managing director resigned, claiming he was owed money. But it was a quasi bank called London Capital Group (LCG), which John had started two years earlier in the hopes of cashing in on a property boom, that appeared to be in the most difficulty. Attracting investors and customers to LCG had proved trickier than first thought and John had eventually resorted to deceptive creative accounting to keep the business afloat. That eventually attracted the attention of the Department of Trade and Industry and Scotland Yard. According to the New York Times, Stonehouse had set up 24 accounts at 17 banks and passed checks involving hundreds of thousands of pounds. He was eventually tried on 21 charges of theft, fraud and deception involving more than $US382,500. Six months after his arrest in Australia, Stonehouse and his mistress were flown from Melbourne back to England under the escort of four Scotland Yard detectives. He was granted bail and continued to serve as an MP while he awaited his court case, telling colleagues he had suffered a complete mental breakdown. "A new parallel personality took over — separate and apart from the original man, who was resented and despised by the parallel personality for the ugly humbug and sham of the recent years of his public life," he said. "The parallel personality was uncluttered by the awesome tensions and stresses suffered by the original man, and he felt, as an ordinary person, a tremendous relief in not carrying the load of anguish which had burdened the public figure." Stonehouse represented himself at his 68-day trial and was ultimately found guilty of forgery of a passport, stealing cheques from his own company and attempting to defraud insurance companies by pretending he had drowned. He was found innocent of one — conspiring to defraud creditors. Sheila, his mistress, was presumed to be an accomplice in his conspiracy to deceive. She was, however, given a suspended sentence when a judge decided she'd been controlled by her boss. In 1976, John was sentenced to seven years' jail but only served three before being released on parole. John Stonehouse's legacy and the women he left behind The mystery and intrigue of John Stonehouse and his fake death continues to captivate audiences decades after his arrest. Books, podcasts and, more recently, a television show have set out to unpick the bizarre details of his disappearance and escape to Australia. But the truth about what prompted his disappearance is likely buried with John. What is undeniable is the impact it had on those he left behind. Barbara Stonehouse had initially stood by her husband after he was discovered in Australia. "The moment he put his arms around me and kissed me, I forgave him," she said . "I realised that despite this terribly selfish action of his, I loved him still. And so it is." But as the details of his treachery were revealed at his trial, it took a toll on her and she eventually left him. "I am recovering from the shocks of the past months," she said. "I can get by very well in life. I am going to support myself. I am going to carry on with the firm I've been working for as a public relations consultant." The pair divorced in 1979. Meanwhile, after his release from prison, John Stonehouse wrote three novels, all thrillers, and married his mistress Sheila in 1981. While in prison, Stonehouse suffered three heart attacks and underwent open heart surgery. He later died of another heart attack, at 62 years old, just as he was preparing to give a television interview about his fake death. ABC

( MENAFN - Asia Times) China's Economy is having major problems. Despite the country's dominance of global manufacturing, its living standards are starting to stagnate at a level far below that of developed countries. China's growth has slowed down dramatically, from around 6.5% before the pandemic to 4.6% now, and there are credible signs that even that number is seriously overstated . See this , this , this and this on the theme. I think everyone cited here is broadly in agreement. But in the background, China has another problem that's weighing on its people's prosperity and also making it harder to respond to the macroeconomic crisis. This is the problem of chronically low productivity growth. I don't quite believe the official numbers that say China's total factor productivity (TFP) has fallen over the past decade and a half, but it's undeniable that it has grown much more slowly than in previous periods. Why? Paul Krugman points to a sectoral shift toward real estate - an industry with slow productivity growth - after the global financial crisis of 2008. I think that's definitely a part of the story, but probably not all of it. Back in 2022, I wrote a post thinking through various possible reasons why China's productivity growth declined long before it reached rich-world living standards . So in light of China's current struggles, which have only gotten worse in the intervening 2.5 years, I thought it might be helpful to repost it now. I think what I wrote holds up pretty well. It's always an interesting experience to read books about China's economy from before 2018 or so. So many world-shaking events have changed the story since then - Trump's trade war, Covid, Xi's industrial crackdowns, the real estate bust, lockdowns, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reading predictions of China's evolution from before these events occurred is a little like reading sci-fi from 1962. When I started China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® , by the veteran economic consultant Arthur Kroeber, I was prepared for this surreal effect. After all, it was published in April 2016 - not the most opportune timing. So I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant the book still felt. Most of the book's explanations of aspects of the Chinese economy - fiscal federalism, urbanization and real estate construction, corruption, Chinese firms' position within the supply chain, etc. - are either still highly relevant, or provide important explanations of what Xi's policies were reacting against. Dan Wang was not wrong to recommend that I read it. But China's Economy is still a book from 2016, and through it all runs a strain of stubborn optimism that seems a lot less justifiable six years later. Most crucially, while Kroeber acknowledged many of China's economic challenges - an unsustainable pace of real estate construction, low efficiency of capital, an imbalance between investment and consumption, and so on - he argued that China would eventually overcome these challenges by shifting from an extensive growth model based on resource mobilization to one based on greater efficiency and productivity improvements. This was despite his acknowledgement of the fact that productivity growth had already slowed well before 2016, and that Xi's policies so far didn't seem up to the challenge of reviving it. In many ways, productivity growth is the thread that ties together the entire story of the Chinese economy since 2008. Basic economic theory says that eventually the growth benefits of capital accumulation hit a wall, and you have to improve technology and/or efficiency to keep growth going. Some countries, like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, have done this successfully and are now rich; others, like Thailand, failed to do it and are now languishing at the middle-income level. For several decades, Chinese productivity growth looked like Japan's or Korea's did. But slightly before Xi came to power, it downshifted to look a bit more like Thailand. Here's a graph from a Lowy Institute report : In fact, the Lowy Institute's numbers are more optimistic than some other sources. The Penn World Tables has China's total factor productivity growth at around 0 or negative since 2011: And the Conference Board agrees . Personally, I suspect these sources probably underestimate TFP growth (for all countries, not just for China). But even Lowy's more reasonable numbers show a huge deceleration in the 2010s. If this productivity slump persists, it will be very difficult for China to grow itself out of its problems - such as its giant mountain of debt - in the next two decades. The question then becomes: Why has Chinese productivity growth slowed to a crawl? There are several main candidate explanations, and they have important implications for whether Xi will turn things around. The first reason, of course, is that China had several tailwinds that were helping them become more productive, and these are mostly gone now. One thing helping Chinese productivity growth was simply their distance from the technological frontier. When you don't even know how to do fairly simply industrial processes, it's pretty easy to learn these quickly. China imported basic foreign technology by insisting that foreign companies set up local joint ventures when they invest in China, by sending students overseas to learn in rich countries, by reverse-engineering developed-country products, by acquiring foreign companies, etc. Also by industrial espionage, of course, but there are lots of above-board ways to absorb foreign technology too. The problem is, this has limits. As you reach the frontier, the remaining technologies you need to absorb to keep growing productivity quickly become more and more complicated - not the kind of thing you can easily learn from looking at blueprints or taking a class. Companies guard these higher-level secret-sauce technologies much more carefully. A case in point is that China has had trouble building its own fighter jets , because the metallurgy to build the specialized jet engines that make modern top-of-the-line fighters possible is only known to a few companies in a few countries. So over time, the ability to absorb foreign technology peters out and it becomes necessary to start inventing your own stuff. A second tailwind was demographics. Everyone (including Kroeber) talks about China's unusually large demographic dividend in terms of labor input - when you have a ton of young people with few elders or kids to take care of, they can go work a lot - but it's also probably a factor in productivity. Maestas, Mullen & Powell (2016) shows a negative relationship between population age and productivity at the US state level, while Ozimek, DeAntonio & Zandi (2018) find that the same is true at the firm level. The mechanism is unknown, but the pattern is pretty robust. In any case, China began to age rapidly right around 2010, when its working-age population peaked as a percentage of the total (and peaked in absolute terms shortly afterward): A third tailwind for productivity was rapid urbanization. As Arthur Lewis famously noted , simply moving people from low-productivity agricultural work to high-productivity urban manufacturing work raises productivity a lot. Agglomeration economies are another force by which urbanization raises productivity. And economists find that China hit its“Lewis turning point” - i.e. ran out of surplus agricultural laborers to move to the cities - right around 2010 . Of course, China also limited urbanization unnecessarily by using its hukou (household registration) system to keep migrant laborers from settling permanently in cities. But in any case, this tailwind also appears to be over. So in the last decade, three big tailwinds that were driving Chinese productivity growth probably dried up. And there's not really anything that Xi Jinping or any leader can do about that. But there are probably other factors dragging down China's productivity growth as well, that might be more amenable to policy fixes. If you can no longer import foreign technology, one thing you can do is to invent your own. In fact, this is a good thing to do even if you do import foreign technology, since companies should create new products and new markets instead of just aping foreign stuff. And indeed, China has been spending a lot more on research and development in recent years. Here's a chart from the blog Bruegel : Unfortunately, research input doesn't always lead to research output. A 2018 study by Zhang, Zhang & Zhao finds that Chinese state-owned companies have much lower R&D productivity than Chinese private companies, which in turn have much lower productivity than foreign-owned companies. And a 2021 paper by König et al. finds that while R&D spending by Chinese companies does appear to raise TFP growth, the effect is quite modest: The authors suggest misallocation of resources as a major culprit in low R&D productivity - in other words, a lot of this spending is being done by state-owned companies that are just throwing money at“research” because the government tells them to, but not really discovering much. They also note that some companies simply reclassify normal investment as“R&D” in order to take advantage of tax breaks (note that companies do this everywhere). What about university research? This is an extremely important part of how the US keeps its technological edge. And China has indeed been throwing huge amounts of money at university research, such that its expenditure now nearly rivals that of the US China recently passed the US in terms of published scientific papers , including highly cited papers . But the quality of this research has been called into question. Investigations regularly find that despite all this publication activity and all this spending, Chinese universities are not the leaders in most fields of research . Basically, the story is that Chinese scientists are under tremendous pressure to publish a ton of crappy papers, which all cite each other, raising citation counts. In the words of Scientific American, this has led to“the proliferation of research malpractice, including plagiarism, nepotism, misrepresentation and falsification of records, bribery, conspiracy and collusion.” So the low productivity of Chinese R&D may help explain why the country's domestic innovation hasn't risen to take the place of foreign technology absorption. As everyone who reads this blog knows, I'm a big fan of the development theories of Joe Studwell and Ha-Joon Chang. A pillar of the Chang-Studwell model is the idea of“export discipline .” Basically, when companies venture out into global markets, they encounter tougher competition and also ideas for new products, new customers, and new technologies. This raises their incentive (and their ability) to import more foreign technology, and in general makes them more productive and innovative. After the global financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed, the US wasn't able to absorb an ever-expanding amount of imports from China. So Chinese exports to the US market slowed in the 2010s , and then Trump's trade war slowed them even more. China's exports to the EU rose a bit , but not that much. Many people (including Kroeber) talk about this as a shift from export-led growth to growth led by domestic investment. And so it is. But if productivity benefits from exporting, then this is also a challenge for long-term growth, because there's less opportunity for export discipline to work its magic. In fact, this might be one reason that it's harder for big countries to grow relative to small countries. It's a lot harder to be an export-led economy when you have 1.4 billion people than when you only have 50 million people (as South Korea does), because the world simply gets saturated with your exports. Which raises the question of why the US manages to be so productive - more productive even than most European and rich East Asian economies. Consumption might have something to do with that. The US is a very large economy that is geographically distant from most other major economies. This explains why the US has a very low amount of trade relative to GDP - just 23%, compared to 81% for Germany and 69% for South Korea. But the US is also a highly productive economy, more productive than all but a few small rich nations. Exports certainly helped the US grow, but to a large extent it simply sold stuff to itself. As the chart above shows, China increasingly does the same. But unlike the US, China's domestic economy is heavily weighted towards investment in capital goods - apartment buildings, highways, trains, and so on. China's final consumption is only 54% of GDP , compared to over 80% in the US. And private household consumption accounts for only 39% of China's GDP , compared with 67% in the US. Of course, China is still at an earlier stage of development, but as Kroeber notes in his book, even countries like Japan and South Korea had significantly higher consumption shares at equivalent stages of their own growth stories. Usually this gets discussed in the context of“imbalances.” But what if it also affects productivity? Consumers have a preference for differentiated goods that spurs companies to develop new products, increase quality, offer new features, and so on. The strategy professor Michael Porter argues that when companies compete by differentiating their products instead of simply competing on costs, it results in higher value-added - in other words, it makes them more productive. Over the past decade, China has been building a lot of buildings and a lot of infrastructure. But it hasn't been developing a lot of innovative and high-quality cutting-edge consumer products. Various government policies that funnel resources toward domestic investment rather than domestic consumption may inadvertently be holding back Chinese productivity. And the biggest such policy might be macroeconomic stabilization. It's important to stabilize the economy. Recessions throw people out of work and create tons of suffering, and probably also lead to underinvestment by companies. They can damage the cohesion of entire societies. The US rediscovered this lesson the hard way in 2008-11 when our insufficient fiscal stimulus resulted in a recession that was longer and more painful than it had to be. But there may be such a thing as too much stabilization. As I explained in a post last September , China avoided going into recession both in 2008-11 and again in 2015-16 (after a big stock market crash) by pumping money into real estate, via lending by state-controlled banks , often to SOEs and to local governments . This likely saved the Chinese economy from experiencing recessions in 2008-11 and 2015-16. But it had a big negative effect on productivity growth, for three reasons. First, SOEs simply aren't very productive compared to other Chinese companies. Second, the money was shoveled out the door very quickly, meaning that there wasn't much time or incentive to figure out which projects were worth investing in. And third, real estate and construction are sectors of the economy with notoriously low rates of productivity growth. This last is probably the scariest, as it led China's economy to be more dependent on real estate than any other in recent memory: Anyone who has followed the saga of China's Covid lockdowns will sense a familiar pattern here. The Chinese government, eager to preserve the appearance of invincibility, often goes overboard in unleashing the tools of control. But while recessions are not healthy things, the lengths to which Chinese policymakers went to make absolutely 100% sure they never had even the slightest recession may have left their economy with a huge hangover of low-productivity industry. So there are plenty of reasons why China's productivity growth crashed to a low level in the 2010s and 2020s. But speeding it back up again - which every analyst, including Kroeber, seems to recommend - will be no easy task. The tailwinds driving productivity higher are gone. And China's misallocation of resources toward low-quality research and low-quality real estate industries will not be easy to reverse; these systems have a way of getting entrenched. Xi Jinping, of course, is going to try. Part of his effort consists of industrial policy - the Made in China 2025 initiative and the big push for a domestic semiconductor industry . It remains to be seen whether those will bear fruit. But in the last three years, Xi has undertaken a second, more destructive effort to reshape China's industrial landscape. Instead of simply boosting the industries he wants, he has attacked the industries he doesn't want. He has cracked down on consumer internet companies, finance companies, video games and entertainment. And he has attempted to curtail the size of the real estate industry , resulting in a slow-motion crash that's still ongoing . Essentially, Xi is trying to crush industries he doesn't like, in the hopes that resources - talent and capital - flow to the industries he does like. This is a new kind of industrial policy - instead of“picking winners”, Xi is stomping losers. One of the saddest things about optimistic 2016-era analyses like Kroeber's is how much hope they place in internet companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu as heralds of a new, more innovative China. Xi has declared that these companies are not, in fact, the future. But it's far from clear that an economy works like a tube of toothpaste, where smashing one end will send resources squirting out the other end. If you're a budding entrepreneur, do you really think that starting a semiconductor company instead of an internet company will win you Emperor Xi's favor? What if next week he decides that he doesn't need more chip companies and that your company isn't one of his preferred champions? What if after you get rich and successful, Xi decides you're a potential rival and appropriates your fortune? An economy where the leader is always smashing companies and industries he doesn't like is inherently an economy full of risk. Yes, Chinese engineers and managers will obey Xi's will and go into the industries he wants them to go into. But the loss of entrepreneurship and initiative might make this a pyrrhic victory. In other words, escaping China's low-productivity-growth trap is going to be tough, and Xi's strategy doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence so far. This article was first published on Noah Smith's Noahpinion Substack and is republished with kind permission. Become a Noahopinion subscriber here. Thank you for registering! An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link. MENAFN30122024000159011032ID1109040388 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. 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Thompson-Herro fight leads to ejections of multiple players and coaches in Heat's victory in Houston HOUSTON (AP) — Rockets forward Amen Thompson threw Heat guard Tyler Herro to the floor to trigger an altercation that resulted in six ejections in the closing minute of Miami's 104-100 victory over Houston on Sunday. Canadian Press Dec 29, 2024 8:29 PM Dec 29, 2024 8:35 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Both bench clear for a brawl after Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson threw Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro to the court, resulting in multiple ejections for both teams in the final minute of play during the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke) HOUSTON (AP) — Rockets forward Amen Thompson threw Heat guard Tyler Herro to the floor to trigger an altercation that resulted in six ejections in the closing minute of Miami's 104-100 victory over Houston on Sunday. Thompson and Herro became entangled with Miami about to inbound the ball leading 99-94 with 35 seconds left. Thompson grabbed Herro by the jersey and tossed him, with referee Marc Davis describing it as Thompson “body slams Herro .” “I didn’t see it live, but I re-watched it,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “They were in each other’s face, bumping chests a little bit, and one guy’s stronger than the other.” Herro, Thompson, and Udoka were ejected, as were Heat guard Terry Rozier, Rockets guard Jalen Green, and Rockets assistant coach Ben Sullivan. Davis said Green and Rozier escalated the altercation, while Sullivan was assessed a technical foul and ejected for unsportsmanlike comments as the referee was trying to redirect the Rockets' Alperen Sengun. The altercation occurred after Miami had come from 12 points down in the second half to regain the lead with the help of Houston missing 11 straight shots in the fourth quarter. Herro keyed the comeback, leading all scorers with 27 points and adding nine assists and six rebounds. He believed that's what frustrated Thompson. “Guess that’s what’s happens when someone’s scoring, throwing dimes, doing the whole thing,” Herro said. “I’d get mad, too.” Herro said he had never spoken to Thompson, who did not talk to reporters after Sunday’s game, so there was no previous bad blood between the two. “Just two competitors going at it, playing basketball,” Herro said. “It was a regular game that we were playing throughout.” Houston's Fred VanVleet had been ejected just before the fight, with Davis saying VanVleet made contact with him after being called for a 5-second violation. The win for Miami came 24 hours after losing 120-110 in Atlanta. The Heat were missing second-leading scorer Jimmy Butler for a fifth straight game, so Herro was proud of his team played against one of NBA’s best teams this season. “They’re top two, three in the West,” Herro said. “Very good defense. Got a bunch of young, athletic guys that can really play, so that’s a good win for us. That’s a stepping stone. We go 2-1 on the road. Put ourselves in a position to win yesterday, and I like how it’s going. We just got to continue to keep getting better.” The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Basketball Herro leads Heat over Rockets in game marred by fight and ejections in final minute Dec 29, 2024 7:40 PM Tyler Herro scores 27 before ejection in Heat's 104-100 win over Houston Rockets Dec 29, 2024 7:35 PM Veteran forward Bruce Brown's return a boost to flagging Toronto Raptors' lineup Dec 29, 2024 7:06 PM

As Minecraft continues to evolve, the upcoming 1.21 update introduces a revolutionary way to encounter one of the game’s most coveted resources: diamonds. Traditionally, mining at lower depths in the Overworld was the primary method of finding these precious gems. However, with the advent of new technologies and gameplay mechanics, players are set to experience a thrilling new dimension of diamond hunting. The Introduction of Enhanced Reality Blocks One of the standout features in Minecraft 1.21 is the introduction of enhanced reality blocks. These blocks use cutting-edge technology to create dynamic environments that challenge players’ resourcefulness and creativity. When mining, players will need to solve intricate puzzles embedded within these blocks to uncover diamond veins. This not only diversifies the mining experience but also adds an intellectual challenge to the pursuit of precious gems. Unlocking Quantum Caves Furthermore, the update introduces Quantum Caves, a novel biome where the laws of physics behave unpredictably. These caves are rich in rare minerals, including diamonds. However, crafting specialized tools influenced by in-game quantum technology is essential to navigate these treacherously unstable environments. Players will find a fresh layer of strategy in choosing the right tools and timing their mining expeditions. An Eye Towards the Future This innovative approach to encountering diamonds in Minecraft 1.21 not only reinvents a classic game mechanic but also signals a future where technology and creativity intertwine seamlessly in gameplay. Players can look forward to an enriched experience, where the thrill of discovery is multiplied by ingenuity and strategic planning. Revolutionary Minecraft 1.21 Update: Discover Diamonds Like Never Before Minecraft’s 1.21 update is creating waves in the gaming community with its groundbreaking methods for discovering one of the game’s most sought-after resources: diamonds. Departing from the conventional methods of mining in the Overworld, the update introduces players to exciting technological advancements and gameplay mechanics designed to transform the mining experience. Features and Innovations # Enhanced Reality Blocks Among the highlights of the 1.21 update are the enhanced reality blocks. This innovative feature integrates complex puzzles within the game’s environment, demanding players to utilize their creativity and problem-solving skills to access diamond deposits. The inclusion of these puzzle-based blocks signifies a shift towards a more intellectually engaging gameplay, adding depth and variety to the traditional mining routine. # Quantum Caves: A New Dimension The update also introduces players to Quantum Caves, a new biome characterized by its unpredictable physics and wealth of rare minerals, including diamonds. To navigate these caves, players must harness quantum technology to craft specialized tools. This introduces a tactical layer to the gameplay, requiring players to make strategic decisions about tool selection and expedition timing, amplifying the game’s challenge and reward dynamics. Security Aspects and Compatibility The Minecraft 1.21 update ensures that these new features are compatible with previous game versions while maintaining security standards. This backward compatibility means that even players with older versions can experience some benefits of the update, although full features are optimized for the latest version. Sustainability in Game Design An interesting aspect of this update is its focus on sustainability within game design. By requiring players to think critically about resource usage and mining strategies, Minecraft subtly promotes responsible gaming practices. This aligns with broader trends in the gaming industry towards sustainable and educative gameplay. Predictions and Future Insights The integration of technology and artistry in Minecraft 1.21 sets a precedent for future updates, hinting at a direction where player interaction is increasingly complex and the learning curve rewards strategic thinking. We predict that future versions will continue to blend educational elements with entertainment, pushing the boundaries of what Minecraft can offer as a sandbox game. Market Analysis With these game-altering features, Minecraft 1.21 is poised to draw back veteran players and attract new audiences intrigued by its enriched gameplay mechanics. This update could potentially lead to a surge in Minecraft’s player base and engagement levels, further solidifying its position as a staple in the gaming market. For more insights into upcoming updates and features, visit the official Minecraft website .AMD has been steadily gaining market share against its main rival, Intel, in the CPU market, and Nvidia in the GPU market. The company’s Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs have been praised for their performance and value, making AMD a formidable force in the semiconductor industry. The upcoming releases are expected to further solidify AMD’s position and potentially attract new customers. Rumors suggest that AMD is gearing up to launch its Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs, along with RDNA 4 GPUs, specifically the RX 9070 XT. These products are expected to bring significant performance improvements and new features, catering to gamers, content creators, and professionals. AMD’s Rise to Prominence: A David vs. Goliath Story AMD has come a long way from its underdog days. For years, the company played second fiddle to Intel in the CPU market. However, AMD’s fortunes changed with the introduction of its Ryzen processors in 2017. Built on the Zen microarchitecture , Ryzen CPUs offered competitive performance at a lower price point, disrupting the market and forcing Intel to innovate. Similarly, in the GPU market, AMD’s Radeon graphics cards have been steadily gaining ground against Nvidia’s GeForce lineup. AMD’s GPUs have become a popular choice for gamers and content creators, thanks to their strong performance and attractive pricing. The Power of Anticipation: Why Investors are Excited The buzz surrounding AMD’s new CPUs and GPUs is not just hype; it’s backed by solid reasons. AMD has a track record of delivering innovative products that push the boundaries of performance. The upcoming releases are expected to be no different. Here’s what’s fueling the investor optimism: Analyst Predictions and Market Outlook Several analysts have expressed bullish views on AMD’s future. Rosenblatt Securities, for instance, has maintained a “Buy” rating on AMD with a price target of $250. The firm believes that AMD is well-positioned to benefit from the growth of AI and next-generation technologies. The overall market outlook for the semiconductor industry is also positive. Demand for CPUs and GPUs is expected to remain strong, driven by the increasing adoption of cloud computing, gaming, and AI. This bodes well for AMD, which is poised to capture a larger share of the market with its innovative products. My Personal Take on AMD I’ve been an AMD user for several years now, and I’ve been consistently impressed by the company’s products. I built my current PC with a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and a Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU, and it has served me well for both gaming and content creation. I’m particularly fond of AMD’s commitment to providing high performance at a competitive price. I’m excited to see what AMD has in store for us with its next-generation CPUs and GPUs. I believe that the company’s focus on innovation and customer value will continue to drive its success in the years to come. Beyond the Hype: Challenges and Opportunities While the future looks bright for AMD, the company faces several challenges. The semiconductor industry is highly competitive, with players like Intel and Nvidia constantly innovating. Maintaining its momentum will require AMD to continue pushing the boundaries of technology and deliver products that meet the evolving needs of customers. Another challenge is the global chip shortage, which has impacted the entire semiconductor industry. AMD has been working to mitigate the effects of the shortage, but it remains a concern. Despite these challenges, AMD has significant opportunities for growth. The company’s expanding product portfolio, including CPUs, GPUs, and data center solutions, positions it to capitalize on various market segments. Furthermore, AMD’s focus on AI and high-performance computing opens up new avenues for growth. AMD’s stock surge is a testament to the company’s strong performance and the anticipation surrounding its upcoming products. With its innovative CPUs and GPUs, AMD has become a major player in the semiconductor industry. The company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and delivering value to customers has resonated with investors and tech enthusiasts alike. As AMD continues to innovate and expand its product portfolio, it is well-positioned for continued growth in the years to come. The company’s next-generation CPUs and GPUs are expected to further solidify its position in the market and fuel its rise to new heights.